Golden Days
by Alia Inverse
Summary: Before Zero, before V.V., before politics forced them apart the six of them had been a family. Those days of happiness would accompany them in the darkness ahead. #2 Courting: They had known that princes did not always live in fairytales.
1. Shogi

**Shogi**

_-Sometimes, a board is all they needed to communicate._

* * *

It had begun as a joke of sorts, as subtle and calculative as the two boys who played it. No one else in the family (with the possible exception of Lady Marianne, because she always seemed to know what happened in her villa) knew of it, and even if they had, they'd simply have chalked it to the two royals' eccentricity.

If they had known, Clovis would have pouted and wrinkled his nose, trying to hide his curiosity and demanding to be included, even if he could not win; Euphie would have watched their games for hours, happy simply because her brothers were happy; Nunally would have smiled indulgently at them all and leave it at that, and Cornelia… well, Cornelia would have teased her elder brother endlessly, trying to trick him into admit that _yes,_ he _cared_ about the frustrating tyke that was the older vi Britannia.

(This would be rather hypocritical of her, since she would rather attend a tea party with the courtiers than admit her affection for the violet-eyed boy herself).

Truth be told, the relationship between the Second and the Eleventh Prince was a strange one, that puzzled everyone but for the handful who truly knew them. They were nearly a decade apart, and to the curious outsider they could not be more different. The Second Prince, Schneizel el Britannia, was a handsome Aryan loved by the Court and the military alike, a raising force in the political game and already regarded by many as the favorite to occupy his father's throne as the 99th Emperor. The Eleventh Prince, Lelouch vi Britannia, was a dark haired boy who had inherited the cool beauty of his mother, but as son of a commoner was often subjected to the scorn of his peers; he was unfailingly polite in public, yet seemed to keep everyone at a distance and had no interest in his heritage.

Upon his seventeenth birthday, Schneizel began travelling the world. He accompanied the ambassadors and the generals on their trips, watching and learning; by then it was not a secret that the First Prince was weak and unsuited to rule, and as such he was given much more leeway than it should have been allowed.

It was after much teasing and maybe a bit of unacknowledged home-sickness than during a trip to Turkey the young Prince decided to surprise the handful of siblings he cared about, the five that somehow always managed to rope him into a celebration whenever he came back to the Empire.

Cornelia received a little charm, a round stone painted in blue and white tones with a small hole on top that allowed it to hang from a leather strap-she scoffed and grumbled, claiming that she did not believe in her country's superstitions, much less in foreign ones. (Yet a few months later, the Turkish eye was still attached to the key-ring of her experimental Knightmare).

Then came Clovis' turn, and soon he was the owner of a tiny box of expensive blue pigments, ranging from ultramarine to azurite that would be depleted in a little over two months.

Euphie and Nunally spun delightedly with their new matching dresses, and disappeared upstairs for a few minutes before reappearing with them and joyfully hugging their brother.

Finally, he took a heavy looking wooden box, and for the first time allowed a smirk to appear on his face, waving it over his head and making something rattle inside. His tone came as close to mischievous as his personality allowed, as he taunted the dark-haired boy who eyed him with something similar to distrust.

"This is a popular strategy game in the country. I believe it will be a nice change of pace from our usual matches, don't you think?"

Behind them, Marianne was shaking her head fondly, though the veiled insult seemed to have escaped the notice of the other Britanias; not surprising, seeing as Lelouch rarely lost in chess to anyone but Schneizel at this point, and even so he was the only one who could at least hold his ground against the Second Prince.

"How is it called?" Lelouch immediately rose to the challenge, his eyes already shinning with the calculating gleam that sometimes made Schneizel shudder in anticipation.

"Tavla."

"What are the rules?"

"Red and black. Whoever moves all of the checkers to the other side first, wins."

During their brief discussion they had taken over a corner of the table and barely five minutes later they were completely oblivious to anything else, immersed in the new game.

The other royal children watched this happening with various degrees of amusement, until it became apparent that both the host and the reason for the party were too caught up in their match to remember anything else, throwing the dice back and forth and moving the pieces creating a soft _clack-clack_ on the wood. Cornelia snorted.

"Let's leave those logic nuts to themselves and eat Euphie's cake before we die of boredom." She said blandly. Soon, the other three followed, Clovis more reluctantly than the girls as he tried to spy on his brothers even as he kept an ear on his sisters' conversation. The matches continued well into the evening, until the Fifth Empress ushered her son to see the li Britannia off and the blond excused himself, a bit sheepishly thanks to the woman's glare.

Without them ever agreeing on it, it became a tradition of sorts that Schneizel would introduce Lelouch to any strategy game he could get his hands on during the business travels that became rather frequent in the following months.

While chess was still the boys' favorite, their hobby was challenging in new and unexpected ways. Neither was used to the different set of rules and moves, and the gap between their skills lessened during these challenges. And even if neither would admit it, it felt like their own small act of rebellion. After all, it was frowned upon to accept and enjoy any customs of those 'weaker' than the Holy Britannian Empire, and if their little competition were to be discovered, it would surely scandalize the upper echelon of the Court. They wouldn't be punished, but their father would be far from pleased. It was thrilling, and there was always an excitement that had nothing to do with the match on course when they occupied a room of the villa, closing the door after them.

After Schneizel and Odysseus visited the Chinese Federation, the blond came back with Go stones. A trip to the European Union was followed by evenings of Stratego and multiple variables of checkers.

This continued for almost two years.

And then Marianne was killed.

When the Second Prince visited Aeries villa a week later, it had not yet been abandoned, but was already wasting away. Most of the staff had already been fired or relocated, but it was the small details that created that depressing sight for those who had visited often; the lack of flowers near the windows, the absence of shadows moving about the many rooms of the mansion. The garden was trampled near the front doors, where the security had, far too late, tried to find the assassin.

The blond found Lelouch in his mother's studio, his eyes as dull and lifeless as the villa, scanning the reports that had been abandoned and forgotten after the incident. Schneizel made a note to get someone to revise them later, as they could be important. But that could be done later. He cleared his throat, and the boy in front of him looked up warily.

"Let's play a game."

"You want to play chess _now_?" For the first time since the incident, his younger brother's voice cracked, with just a touch of hysteria betraying the fear he surely felt. Schneizel said nothing. Instead he carefully set the documents aside and he placed a wooden box in their place, finding a chair nearby before sitting in front of the remaining vi Britania. With a flourish he opened it, revealing the foreign pentagonal pieces with those indecipherable yet elegant symbols on top.

"This is a popular strategy game in the country." He needn't say which country he was talking about this time. This was a conversation they had repeated enough times; it was safe, familiar. In that moment of uncertainty, it was the only means the elder had left to express what he wanted to say. Slowly, feeling his hands tremble a little, the Prince only in name sat too, accepting the offer.

"How is it called?" There was no need to put his gratitude into words, just as his brother had not openly worded his regret.

"Shogi."

* * *

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Once again Suzaku had stormed off in the middle of a match with Todoh like he tended to do whenever he was on the verge of losing, and from his post in the shadows, Lelouch saw the general sigh and follow his retreat before moving to collect the pieces on board. After seeing this event repeat itself without fail almost daily, Lelouch finally managed to the courage to walk forward and examine the board.

"Bishop to 7-5"

The general's hand froze over the board, and slowly he sat back, studying the britannian exile. The ex-prince risked one more glance to the stern figure before with a bit of trepidation he decided to take the lack of answer as encouragement. He sat in Suzaku's abandoned post, completing the move he had just called.

Todoh counterattacked.

Lelouch managed to survive three more minutes before being forced to admit checkmate.

And the Japanese man reset the pieces.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**If you have any kind of comment or any prompts you'd like to see, preferably of the royal children, don't hesitate to tell me and I'll do my best to include them! This fic is marked as 'In Progress' but I'm not sure when or if I'll update... In any case, updates will be **_**very**_** sporadic. ^^;**

**P.S.: If there are any readers of 'It's All Fun and Games' here, the next chapter will come along shortly... I've just hit a rather nasty writer's block, but I already have about half of it done. Sorry...**


	2. Courting

**Courting**

_-They had known that princes did not always live in fairytales._

* * *

The two younger princesses in their family had instinctively known that they would not be contestants for the Emperor's throne. It was not a question of age, or even of their talents; it was simply the fact that they had too much heart, and not enough of the ambition that seemed to move most of the royal children and made them throw themselves into a vicious and long-drawn battle where every action could destroy months of careful planning.

But they were by no means dumb, whimsical girls, oblivious to the world and the politics around them. They could see, maybe even more accurately than the rest, how the pressure of their shared heritage was slowly morphing their siblings into something they should not have been.

In Schneizel who was several years their senior, the change had begun even before they were born; neither Euphie nor Nunally could remember a time where the blond had looked completely free of his title, and even around them there was always a calculated poise and smoothness that seemed to have been permanently glued to his character.

Cornelia had responded to the Imperial threat by becoming much more violent and ruthless than her peers. As the days passed, her caring nature got buried under her duty and her desire to prove herself, to the point were rarely anyone but the princesses got to see her unrestrained smile.

Clovis was still a child in many aspects, but he was smart enough to realize that his talents did not lay in the military. By the time their father passed away, the Empire would be in peace, and would not need a warrior for a leader. Much to his pleasure, he discovered his skills in sweet-talking the nobility, and his status rose after each party he attended.

Now the change was happening to the youngest, the one closest in age to themselves. His smiles, that had been so normal a few months ago, had been gradually disappearing until he rarely allowed them to break his mask outside of the villa. In social gatherings Lelouch silently took his mother's right side, back straightened, always with praise ready on his lips for whoever was in front of him, and in those moments only Nunally could see the quick flash of anger and irritation that followed another demeaning comment towards their line.

Nunally and Euphie may have let that slide, if it had been all; but they knew from experience that if things ran their course, Lelouch would keep distancing himself from them, like he could keep them safe and pure if he just covered their eyes, just as Schneizel and Cornelia had done before. They were not about to let that happen without a fight.

And so the game began; when Lelouch was disappointed because yet another boy had tried to befriend him just to get close to the royal family, Euphie would come around and declare loudly that she didn't need friends because she was going to marry the prince when they grew up. When he and Schneizel were deep in conversation about Lady Roshier's latest scandal and how it would affect Lord Roshier's status, Nunally would interrupt to say with all the seriousness in the world that Lelouch's frowning face was cuter than the elder brother's.

The funniest event would have to be that time when they staged a fight (that in all truth was only half-faked) about who should have rights over the violet-eyed boy in front of a new member of the Villa's security. By the time Marianne came and separated them, Jeremiah looked about to cry and apologized profusely to Nunally's mother for anything and everything he could think of, from 'allowing harm to come to the princesses' (though of course they had not even come close to blows, so it was a rather pointless apology) to 'eavesdropping a private conversation'. Even then Marianne had to assure him that the Eleventh prince would not marry any of his blood-related siblings before he managed to stop looking at them funny.

Lelouch was, understandably, very bewildered by this; the first few times he would blush to the roots and declare that they were his _sisters_, thank you very much, and he wouldn't realize they were joking until the girls burst into giggles and he was forced to admit defeat and let out a little smile.

Sometimes, as time passed and Euphie and Nunally gained confidence in their schemes, they extended their antics to the other siblings they liked.

During Christmas' Eve they almost caused a riot after Odysseus made a particularly nasty remark about Schneizel's love life in front of some visiting dignitaries, and they answered by kissing Schneizel one on each cheek and saying that he was reserving himself for when they were of age. Suffice to say that Cornelia and Lelouch were far from impressed.

Cornelia and Lelouch also learned to be wary around Clovis, as the few times they roped him into their game he was the only one who played along, kissing the back of their hands or putting a hand over his heart as if he had been completely love-struck, even if his laugh afterwards had a distinctly nervous edge as he felt the elders' glare on him.

Of course Lelouch remained their favorite.

Others would frown, but the princesses would not stop because they could see their method was working. Maybe Schneizel was still perfectly calm and composed whenever there was someone watching, and Clovis and Lelouch still took great care in refining their public faces in front of a crowd, but when they were alone, or with the other six, they seemed to behave almost… well, almost like those people they saw outside the walls; almost like any other britannian. They weren't losing to the royal personas that possessed them outside of these moments.

The two younger princesses in their family knew without doubt that they would not be contestants for the Emperor's throne, and that was okay; all they wanted and needed to be happy was to be together forever, all of them.

As long as Nunally and Euphie could make their family smile, they knew they'd have everything they could ever wish for.

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**Thank you for reading, and also for the favs, follows and reviews! I'm sorry this chapter is shorter than the first… I hope you still liked it ^^ (now I'm going to watch the Episode-That-Must-Not-Be-Named again and cry like an idiot T-T).**


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